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NOOK Book(eBook)

Overview

Magic gets an upgrade in the first WebMage novel featuring a computer savvy sorcerer...

Ravirn is not your average computer geek. A child of the Fates—literally—he’s a hacker extraordinaire who can zero in on the fatal flaw in any program. Now that twenty-first-century magic has gone digital that makes him a very talented sorcerer. But a world of problems is about to be downloaded on Ravirn—who’s just trying to pass his college midterms.

Great Aunt Atropos, one of the three Fates, decides that humans having free will is really overrated and plans to rid herself of the annoyance—by coding a spell into the Fate Core, the server that rules destiny. As a hacker, Ravirn is a big believer in free will, and when he not only refuses to debug her spell but actively opposes her, all hell breaks loose.

Even with the help of his familiar Melchior, a sexy sorceress (who’s also a mean programmer), and the webgoblin underground, it’s going to be a close call...

About the Author

Kelly McCullough is the author of the WebMage series and the Fallen Blade series.

Read an Excerpt

No time for second thoughts now

Scorched Earth is not a spell that can be aborted halfway. Ultimately, all spells draw power from the same source, the primal chaos that churns between the worlds. But my family mostly uses the predigested forces my grandmother and her sisters channel into the net via their mainframe webservers. Scorched Earth isn’t like that. It taps directly into the interworld chaos. That means it’s both very dangerous and very powerful. It also means I don’t have to have web access to run it. Melchior’s voice interrupted my train of thought. “There’s no carrier wave and no Mweb line,” he said. “I think we just took the entire net down, Boss.” “Sweet necessity,” I murmured. “What have I done now?”

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“The most enjoyable science fantasy book I’ve read in the last four years.”—Christopher Stasheff

Editorial Reviews

The Barnes & Noble ReviewThe protagonist of Kelly McCullough's debut novel, WebMage -- a blend of Greek mythology, contemporary fantasy, and cyberpunk -- is equal parts sorcerer and hacker extraordinaire (Harry Potter meets Neo from The Matrix). Prince Ravirn is the grandson of Lachesis, one of the Fates: the three immortal crones who spin, measure, and eventually cut every person's life thread. While disguised as a goth computer geek named Ravi Latcher and majoring in classics and computer science at the University of Minnesota, Ravirn is learning all he can about network security to aid the Fates, who have upgraded their magical craft to the digital world. But after supposedly checking his great-aunt Atropos's security for flaws, Ravirn uncovers a nefarious plot to eliminate chance and free choice forever. With the help of a sarcastic webgoblin named Melchior and his distant -- and beautiful -- cousin Cerice, Ravirn must find a way to save the world from a terrible fate…

McCullough's WebMage is a solid first novel; and with a shocker of a conclusion that turns Ravirn's entire existence upside down and sets the stage for a plethora of story lines, it will have new fans of Kelly McCullough clamoring to see many more sequels. Paul Goat Allen

bn.com

Remember the Fates, those ancient Greek spinners, weavers and snippers of life's threads? They're back in McCullough's original and outstanding debut, and still ruling destiny-but with their own digital web, based on a server called the Fate Core. Power-hungry as ever, they've coded a spell to eliminate human free will. Unluckily for them, one of their demigod descendants is a cheerfully rebellious hacker-sorcerer named Ravirn who, when not studying for college midterms, likes to mess around on their web with the help of his familiar, Melchior, who can change from a goblin to a laptop. Ravirn and Melchior, let loose in McCullough's delightfully skewed and fully formed world-much like our own, but with magic, paranormally advanced technology and Greek gods-set out to thwart Ravirn's "great-to-the-nth-degree aunt[s]," careening from one discovery to another, enlisting unlikely allies and narrowly evading destruction at the hands of both Fates and Furies. McCullough handles his plot with unfailing invention, orchestrating a mixture of humor, philosophy and programming insights that give new meaning to terms as commonplace as "spell checker" and esoteric as "programming in hex." Though a preponderance of techie-talk may put off some readers, this is the kind of title that could inspire an army of rabid fans; it's a good thing a sequel is planned for 2007. (Aug.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

The most enjoyable science fantasy book I’ve read in the last four years.”—Christopher Stasheff

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

I'm IN LOVE with this author and this series. Mashing up cyber/sci-fi and fantasy is always a risky endeavor, and in the wrong author's hands it will at best leave you limp or at worst leave you wishing you could Brillo your brain after reading. But when the mash-up is done well and awesome - you get the likes of Justina Robson, Emma Bull and now Kelly McCullough.The whole series, is a damn fun, clever, engaging tale that not only mingles magic and cyberpunk, but does so against the backdrop of Greek mythos (or MythOS). The characters - Titans, gods, demi-gods, cyber-familiars - are fully fleshed-out (sometimes literally) and multidimensional, and just as scandalous, foible-ridden, self-serving, and at each others' throats as you could hope for in your Greek gods, along with some streaks of believable good-heartedness and altruism. No flat Oedipal/Iliadic snooze-fest here, though no disrespect to the classics meant - just they weren't ever engaging stories to me! Having finished all 5 in the series as of writing this review - I'm only sad to know I'll have to wait awhile for further offerings from McCullough.

slothman on LibraryThing

8 months ago

McCullough riffs on Greek mythology, giving the three Fates a set of descendants and a tradition of using computer technology for performing magic. Our hero, Ravirn, is caught up in both family intrigue and strife with Eris, Goddess of Discord, and spends most of his on-screen time caught up in some crisis or other. (The hero supposedly has a life outside his crises, but we see very little of it.) The action is entertaining, some of the repartee quite funny, the mythology a bit sketchy, the computer technology occasionally requires active suspension of disbelief (though people who aren't software engineers might not notice), and the story lacks the depth and nuance of The Dresden Files. A good read for times when you want some mind candy. I"ll be interested to see if McCullough's storytelling skills pick up in the sequels.

jjmcgaffey on LibraryThing

8 months ago

Weird and wonderful. I was getting a lot of Amber echoes at the beginning (which is not a compliment!) - the more-than-mortal, powerful, backstabbing family. But later on it got a lot richer and more interesting, partly because Ravirn is relatively weak, as his family goes. He has to deal with things sideways and by evasion rather than bulling through, but in the process he learns a lot; about himself, his family, his familiar, and the structure of the multiverse. Nice ending, leaving all his options open. I definitely want to read the next one...and the next...

LaserWraith on LibraryThing

8 months ago

Great book. I love it because it is apparent the author really knows about programming. So many times I get frustrated at sci-fi authors who probably needed someone to help them install/run Word, and who use the wrong terms in their books.

wyvernfriend on LibraryThing

11 months ago

An interesting take on magic meeting technology. Ravirn is a student, trying to keep his head under the parapet, and failing a fair bit. His manytimes-great grandmother is one of the three fates and she wants him to work on a project. He's not sure about her plans, and there are a few people trying to stop him and he's not sure about their motives either.It's a fun read, a great adventure and the depiction of the gods is filled with both humour and understanding. I look forward to reading more by this author!

rocalisa on LibraryThing

11 months ago

A solid and interesting story that doesn't quite manage to lift itself above that.The idea of the Fates as computer programmers is nicely done, but I found the whole book kind of dry, in that all the ingredients were there, but that extra something that would draw me right into the characters was missing.Ravirn was interesting, but all cleverness without the emotional range that would have made him real. Cerise was little more that a plot point where should could have been a solid and real character. The webgoblins and the webtrolls were the most interesting characters, where they should have been strong additions to the leads.There's nothing major wrong with this book and it's an interesting book, but it could have been more and the fact it wasn't marks it down.

amberwitch on LibraryThing

11 months ago

An interesting story utilising aspects of Greek mythology and spell programming. It manages to keep the interest through most of the story even though it is a bit uneven. The emotional scenes suffer from an overdose of pathos, which makes them seem unrealistic, and very long - the number of dramatic departure scenes as the hero rides out to do battle is way too high.Part of the story and worldbuilding bears a strong resemblence to Zelasny's Amber series, but the inventive use of magic as code and mythology makes it all its own.Ravirn is a distant granchild of the middle fate. Due to his abilities as a hacker he gets caught up in a plot to eradicate free will (makes for a much more orderly universe), and to avoid having his own thread cut, he has to reveal the plot and stop its unfolding with only his grumpy but faithful webgoblin familiar for help.Unfortunately he has to do so while acing exams, courting the love of his life and dodging attempts at his life, and everything he does just ends him in hotter water.Hunted by family and furies he travels through paintings and fairy rings, and end up protecting free will with the aid of his beloved, two webgoblins and a rogue webtroll who has shed the shackles of slavery.

amobogio on LibraryThing

11 months ago

Way interesting take on magic as (computer) code. Looking forward to the next one in the series.

Anonymous

More than 1 year ago

Mixing the greek gods with the internet & hacking made this book very fun to read.

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